Perceptions on the Constitutional Future for the Kingdom of Lesotho

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Perceptions on the Constitutional Future for the Kingdom of Lesotho
Author:	Machobane, L.B.B.J.
Year:	1988
Periodical:	Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics
Volume:	26
Issue:	2
Period:	July
Pages:	185-202
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Lesotho
Subjects:	constitutional reform Politics and Government Law, Human Rights and Violence
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1080/14662048808447542
Abstract:	Lesotho's independence constitution of 1966 provided for a British-style 'constitutional monarchy'. However, the country's first Prime Minister, Chief Jonathan, was precipitately driven by economic and political realities to assume the role of a benevolent autocrat. In 1970 he annulled Lesotho's first elections since independence, suspended the Constitution and declared a state of emergency. The King was sent into temporary exile. Ultimately, the failure to reconcile monarchy with parliamentary democracy, and to no less a degree the Prime Minister's inability to relinquish power, all conspired to bring about the most recent military coup d'état of 1986. Following the 1986 coup, a law called the Lesotho Order No. 1 of 1986 was issued, providing that the legislative and executive authority of the Kingdom, the latter formerly vested in the deposed Prime Minister, should both be devolved on the King, Moshoeshoe II. Lesotho's constitutional future, it seems, will be the by-product of an experiment: that of balancing power between the Military Council and the King. Notes, ref.